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Nourished Festival is Coming!

If you or a friend or family member have food allergies, consider attending the upcoming Nourished Festival. Nourished Festival, formerly GFAF (Gluten Free Allergy Friendly), is coming to the (Chicagoland area) Schaumburg Convention Center on June 1 and 2, 2019. Their name change is a reflection of the focus on multiple specialty diets; Gluten Free, Nut Free, Keto, Paleo, and Plant Based. We are primarily focused on the nut free information and we have already picked out a few classes we will be attending. Learning about other specialty diets will be fun too – the more we know the better we can be. Understanding other specialty diets helps us plan better…
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Nourished Festival (GFAF)

Hello friends! We are so pumped to see that Nourished Festival (formerly known as GFAF, Gluten Free, Allergy Friendly) is going to be in our neighborhood this year! If you’re a Midwesterner, get ready – this year’s conference is in Schaumburg, IL, on June 1 – 2, 2019. Nourished Festival is the largest gluten free, allergy free and special diet festival in the United States. Conferences like this are so exciting because it’s such a great opportunity to network, sample new products and learn about emerging technologies in this ever changing industry. Let me mention our favorite part again. SAMPLING NEW PRODUCTS. Just peeking at the Nourished Festival site today,…
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Nutfree Unicorn Birthday

If you’re new to Nutfreemomblog, WELCOME! Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope your weekend was full of love and laughter and that your Monday has started off with GOOD VIBES ONLY! Over the weekend, we had a lot of discussion about this year’s Birthday cake for Miss. Chloe! Unicorns are all the rage right now – and obviously that is where our conversation led yesterday.  Of course we have unicorn cupcake wrappers and a cake ahead! Here are the cupcake wrappers we selected for our nutfree classroom treat. We ordered them from Amazon and the link is below if you have a uni lover in your life 🙂…
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Sweet Banana Bars

Two great things that go great together, banana bread and frosting. Typically I do not frost items that we eat for breakfast; however, I was in a pinch and needed a quick dessert. Frosting a banana bread that I had already made was the perfect, time-saving idea. And here is the recipe. Ingredients   1/2 cup butter, softened (unsalted) 2 cups sugar 3 large eggs 1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour (King Arthur) 1 teaspoon baking soda pinch of salt Frosting 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened (Kraft)  1/2 cup butter, softened 4 cups confectioners’ sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla…
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Blueberry Scones

Tomorrow morning marks the official start of 2019 “work” for us – school and activities start! Back to the routine. Our morning commute will be increasing by 5 minutes next month and we are going to be working on getting out the door a little earlier with the help of “car breakfast.” I know. Food in the car. UGGG. The kids have these car trays that we use for snacking and activities and they do an amazzing job of catching crumbs. Typically, I just shake them out when we get to our destination. We’ll be using these for the days we eat in the car. This week we have grapes,…
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Hide & Eek Boutique Halloween Cookie House

Today I spoke with Tom in cusomter relations at Taret’s Corproate office in Minneapolis, MN, regarding these adorable Chocolate Halloween House Cookie Kits pictured below. I have excellent news for you friends! It’s a nut free cookie house! Chloe and Carter are going to lose their minds when I bring this out at the end of the month for us to assemble! Allergens: Wheat, egg and soy. May contain: Milk. Tom went above and beyond and sent a note out to the production crew to make sure that there was no chace of cross contact with nuts in the facility. He knew that most DIY cookie houses were made in…
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Safe Snacking Box

Can you believe it?! In just 24 hours the kids will begin their FIRST DAY of the 2018-19 school year. This year we will have a 2nd grader and Kindergartener. They are both so excited. Backpacks are packed, lunch boxes are out – and with all of the excitement comes the hyper organization mode that I go into! It’s meal prep, list making, planner highlighting time! But first, yesterday we took to our nutfreemomblog insta for some quick pics that that I will share here of us building out the annual nut-free box for Chloe’s classroom. This box ensures that she ALWAYS has a safe snack at school. Our #1…
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Panera Cookie Remake

Dining out is difficult when you have food allergies. Especially at Panera. Panera is a big no-no in our nut-free house. Which is hard because I LOVE it. Panera’s fast, healthy options are so tasty, they are perfect for busy Moms on the go. However, for my daughter, this place is very risky. The chance for cross-contact in their kitchen is high. They use all sorts of nuts in their salads and the make-line area is very open, offering little to no menu options to be deemed as “safe” here.  Their bakery items have a warning, “Many of our products contain or may come into contact with common allergens, including…
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Lite Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

I fully intended on blogging tonight about my failed recipe disaster, minus an oven fire. You see, any creation that comes out of a kitchen with two wild animals roaming freely is bound to end in disaster, eventually, if not regularly. I regularly mess things up in the kitchen when I’m cooking / baking, mostly because I’m half responding to the random MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM questions buzzing in my ear. The point is not to dwell on it, then just eat it or throw it out and move on…to McDonalds. Fortunately, luck was on our side tonight. We were multitasking ninjas and decided it was a splendid time to…
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Olbrich Botanical Gardens – Madison, WI

June, the beginning of summer in the mid-west and it is always a busy month in our household. It’s usually the last week of school, followed by the beginning of pool season, backyard play times, neighborly hangouts and the one big event I still help plan, Olbrich Garden’s Rhapsody in Bloom! This fundraiser is important since it helps keep the gardens fee for the public to enjoy. Yes, Olbrich is amazing + gorgeous + free! What is Olbrich Gardens?! It is a botanical garden that sprawls 16 acres with an array of paths and stone trails to stroll. It is host to the only Thai Pavilion in North America, which…
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The New Ikea – Oak Creek, WI

If you’re looking for an impressive Ikea experience, the new Ikea in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, is well worth your drive. Not only was this store extremely well organized (traffic + parking wise), the customer service and assistance in almost every aisle was very much appreciated. We didn’t know the layout of this new store, so having help available was key to making our shopping trip effective and timely (we live 2 hours away). Somehow, my list grew while I was shopping and I needed help getting a few heavy items off the shelves + into my car.  The employees at this specific store were over the top amazing when it…
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Meal Inspo 4/16/18

Looking for some quick meal inspiration? We’ve had a ton of extra activities at school, and outside of school, that has required us to think super ninja fast for meal times. Actually, now that I think of it, making meals at home is REALLY hard. It requires some serious dedication to plan, purchase, cook, serve, and clean up! Our grocery bill this week was only $98 since we’re trying really hard to eat leftovers, only buy what we eat, and make the most out of what we have. Week after week, I throw away so much away because we just do not eat them or have the time to make…
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Nut Free Thanksgiving Menu

Tradition gives us hope and happiness, and while I know it won’t be the same this year without my husband’s Mom here (we miss her so much already), we are going to try to incorporate some of our usual traditions to help carry us through to a new beginning and happier 2018. Especially for the kids. They need this the most, to see how we persevere in light of adversity. For thanksgiving this year, we’re going to use the staples most of us have had, sans the nuts, as per usual, except the one cooking in the kitchen! Here’s what we are thinking.  Do nothing. Do absolutely nothing, call Whole…
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Buzzy's Lake House Food Truck

Hold the phone. Nut allergy friends REJOICE! Your food truck woes are OVER. Yesterday my little buddy and I (still on house arrest – kind of sick, but not really, check out my IG for more info on this) were hanging out on the square in downtown Madison when we decided to check out a local food truck, Buzzy’s Lake House via my Instagram feed. Buzzy’s was parked on the corner of Wisconsin + Mifflin, which was uber convenient since we were at the toy store one block away. Capitol Kids is probably one of my favorite stores for kiddo swag in all of Madison. They have the most unique…
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